Here’s what she told Larry King on June 10, 2003, during her book tour:

KING: In the Senate yesterday, Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff came up to be a federal court appeals judge. The vote was 88-1. You were the one.
CLINTON: Right.
KING: Why?
CLINTON: Well during that time when he was on the staff of the committee in the Senate, a number of the young people who worked in the White House were, I thought, very badly treated by the Senate staff investigating Whitewater. And a number of those young people were put under tremendous pressure, legal bills that they had to run up. And I just didn’t think it was handled appropriately or professionally.
KING: So you didn’t think him worthy of a judgeship then?
CLINTON: Based on my firsthand knowledge of what went on during that period. But, you know, that’s over. That vote is gone and part of history.
KING: Could have skipped the vote, couldn’t you?
CLINTON: You know, there were several of these young people who asked me to express the only way I could the very difficult feelings that they had in the way that they were treated by that staff.
KING: So you were making a statement?
CLINTON: Yes. I mean, you know, it was a single vote. But it stood for a lot of what I think was wrong during that period.